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All Rise...

Judge Russell Engebretson used to play the suburban blues on ukulele, but gave it up for paper and comb tangos.

The Charge

Trouble brought them together. Music set them free.

Opening Statement

An autistic savant who is a musical genius turns out to be much more
entertaining than an autistic savant who can instantly calculate the exact
number of straws spilled on a floor.

Facts of the Case

Young car thief Wesley Benfield (William Lee Scott, The Butterfly Effect) is sentenced to a
halfway house in Missouri, the Ballard Baptist College, in what will be his last
chance at rehabilitation. If he backslides into his previous larcenous ways, his
next stop will be the penitentiary. Wesley is conscripted into a church band
with some fellow parolees, condemned to strum dull sacred music on his guitar as
spiritual therapy, until one day during a gig at the local mental institution he
spies Vernon (Lucas Black), a piano playing autistic savant who tickles the
ivories like a young Jerry Lee Lewis. Wesley knows that this amazing pianist
could be the band's salvation.

Getting Vernon into the band, however, will not be a simple task. Wesley
must convince Vernon's widowed daddy (W. Earl Brown, Deadwood), who
loathes "bible thumpers" and is soured on life in general, to give
Vernon permission to play with the group.

Daddy's forged signature gains Vernon a spot in what will become the Killer
Diller Blues Band, but at what cost to Wesley who has a local policewoman
hovering in the wings just aching to drag him off to the slammer?

The Evidence

Killer Diller, from a script by Tricia Brock loosely based on a Clyde
Edgerton novel, is an affable, sentimental movie, a light drama with a generous
helping of deadpan humor. Several hard driving blues numbers help to propel the
slightly quirky story on its way.

Shanita Scott (Niki Crawford) is the band's lead singer, and Crawford does a
fine job of kicking out the jambs with her own intensely soulful and funky
vocals. The real guitarist (Tree Adams) and piano player (Jeff Babko), both
consummate pros, provide the musical backbone that allows Crawford's voice to
soar. The music by itself makes the movie a joy to watch, but there is more
going on here than a series of tunes. The characters are paramount, and the
music—wonderful as it is—still is only a backdrop to the story.

All the actors deliver solid, natural performances. The sibling rivalry
between the two Baptist preachers who run the college is fully believable, and
gives us a sneakily satirical commentary on organized religion
that's—well, not too preachy. Vernon's dad—the embittered auto
mechanic who has let his life go to hell since his wife died, yet still loves
his mentally impaired son dearly—is pitch perfect. Wesley Benfield as the
straight man to goofball Lucas Black is an inspired pairing. The acting is high
caliber without a single big-name celebrity in sight.

Killer Diller was directed by Tricia Brock and shot by Matthew Jensen
in a refreshingly straight-forward style. The audience has ample time to take in
the scenery; the camera lingers on the actors' expressions and body movements,
and tracks the action with a serene gracefulness that is the antithesis of the
herky-jerky, flash cut school of editing and filmmaking. It's a delight to watch
a movie that, rather than drawing attention to itself with a bag of tricks,
allows the viewer to linger on the scene for longer than a few milliseconds. I
would like to see more features from Ms Brock, who is now directing on
television.

There are no extras, unless you count a few trailers. The picture is what
one would expect (but does not always get) from a well-authored DVD transfer of
a modern film; solid colors, decent contrast, and a minimum of motion artifacts.
Unfortunately, the only audio option is a bare bones Dolby stereo track. DTS
audio would have been great for such a musically oriented movie, but I suppose
an unlikely option considering the budget constraints of an independent
picture.

Closing Statement

It's discouraging that such a fine movie took so long to come to
DVD—over three years after its theatrical release—while a glut of
wretched Hollywood blockbusters weigh down the store shelves. And although the
film shares some elements of a Hollywood potboiler (a sweet movie with a
predictable story arc), there's an edgy sadness submerged not too far beneath
the film's shiny, happy surface.

Killer Diller is slick, but not too slick. It's a feel-good
independent film minus manipulative sentimentality, filled with soulful,
toe-tapping blues numbers. Most important of all, it has characters you can give
a damn about.

The Verdict

Cast, crew, and extras are only guilty of rockin' the joint. You're all free
to go forth and boogie.